200,000 Heroes by Leon Weckstein

Author:Leon Weckstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hellgate Press
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was estimated that if the Allies launched any kind of attack at the beach, even up to two or three days later, Kesselring would still not have had enough forces in the area to oppose them. Any continued push by the Allies would have affected the roads to the strategic Alban Hills that remained open, and beyond them Rome. Every German general in southern Italy agreed that their troops would have had to be withdrawn, yet the days went by with no Allied follow up materializing. Still puzzled, by the evening of the 24th, the Germans considered that they just might overcome their crisis and had begun to formulate their counterattack.

If the Allies failed to interdict enemy railway traffic at key nodal points, any countermove the Germans attempted would easily provide them enough time to build up their forces faster than the Allies could react.

Warning messages from Tompkins continued and Franco Malfatti’s inside sources were always timely and exact. His cryptically scribed information would be rushed to Allied headquarters, as in the following message recorded on January 28th:

UNITS…TWO ARMORED DIVISIONS THROUGH BRENNER TWENTY THIRD TO FIFTH, BOLOGNA VERONA LARGEST CENTERS. BOMB RAILWAY BRIDGE ON PO RIVER. TERNI CIVITA CASTELLANA VERY BUSY. TWO DIVISIONS ALONG COAST SPEZIA CIVITAVECCHIA. FEW DEFENSES OSTIA FREGENE AREA. GROSSETO AND CASTIGLIONE TRASIMENO AIRPORTS ACTIVE. AIRBORNE UNITS ARRIVED GUIDONIA NIGHT TWENTY SIXTH. GERMANS PLANNING LAUNCH HEAVY ATTACK AGAINST BEACHHEAD FOUR HUNDRED HOURS OF SEVENTH.

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